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Mother of Maryland teen accused of murdering officer: My son should have been detained

Wilson says DJS failed her son, let him free

Posted: 7:09 AM, May 25, 2018

Updated:2018-05-25 11:09:37Z

By:
Zachary Babo, Corey Shegda, Brian Kuebler

The mother of a Maryland teen accused of murdering a Baltimore County Police Officer blamed the justice system in court, saying if her son had been detained the incident would not have happened.

“Numerous times I asked them to detain him so nothing like this would happen,” Tanika Wilson, the mother of 16-year-old Dawanta Harris said, fighting through tears. “…my condolences to the family of the officer. My condolences from the bottom of my heart. If they would have kept him we wouldn’t be here.”

Harris has been charged of first-degree murder in the death of Officer Amy Caprio. He allegedly ran her over with a stolen car after Capiro confronted him in a Perry Hall, Maryland, cul de sac.

“He knows right from wrong,” Wilson said through tears. “Everything changed, his life, my life, the officer’s life, in a split second.”

Wilson, explained the court proceedings her son had been involved in criminal activity since he was first arrested in December 2017. Wilson said she struggled to keep Harris on the straight and narrow as she recently had a baby and Harris transitioned from middle school to high school. She said Harris began hanging out with people that were bad influences.

She also said she would travel the neighborhood looking for her son, occasionally getting into confrontations with other families in the process.

By Monday, May 14, Harris was declared AWOL and the Department of Juvenile Services made several attempts over the next two days to find him. Harris could not be found or contacted, and by another court appearance on Friday, May 18, Wilson hoped a writ would be issued to find and detain her son.

According to court records, because Harris was not at the delinquency hearing, it was tabled until Tuesday, May 22. Caprio was killed on Monday, May 21.

“This was a woman who was crying out for help. She turned to every resource available including the court system, because with a mother’s wit and intuition, she had that feeling that sinks in your gut,” J. Wyndal Gordon, one of Harris' attorneys, said. “ … she did everything that she could to avoid what brings us here today ... this is not an excuse for the conduct of her son, but it’s an explanation of how everyone has been affected by what has taken place in this case, and again, not to forget about the victim, because the victim had family to.”

Harris' lawyers also called on the state to release body cam footage from the incident.

“With regard to suspending judgment, waiting for the evidence, we’re calling for the State’s Attorney, the Police Department, to release the body cam footage” said Warren Brown, one of the lawyer’s representing the driver, Harris. “It should speak for itself, and we see no good reason that the public, especially considering the emotional aspect of this case, should be kept in the dark.”

At a press conference earlier this week, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said he would not release any body camera footage in an effort to avoid tainting future jury pools.

“We think the body cam footage is the sine qua non of this case. There’s been a lot of strong feelings about this case, but strong feelings do not equal strong facts. We want to ask the tough questions about this case, because it generates a lot of questions that we don’t have answers to,” Gordon said. The two attorneys depicted a scenario in which Caprio blocked Harris in, deployed her weapon, and put him in fear for his life, so that he felt the need to escape, driving blindly forward through his only potential route of escape - where Caprio was standing.

“What evidence is it that he intended to hit and kill this police officer? The state has even conceded that when the gun was drawn at some point, either before or after the first shot is fired, he’s ducking down, he’s looking at the seat of the vehicle. He’s instinctively trying to get away,” Brown said. “ … He was in survival mode.”

“People are going to hear what they want to hear, but it should be said and heard that his head was buried as he drove off,” Brown said. “There wasn’t any intention on his part to strike this officer. His intention was to get away.”

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